Residence End-of-year Survey Feedback & Prize Winners!

In late March and early April, your Student Experience and Housing team held an end-of-year feedback survey to all Renison residents to understand your experience residing in our residence community this past year. Thank you to the 98 students who completed the survey, reflecting a 53% response rate from residents who lived in Renison for the Winter term.

What did you tell us?

Well, here’s some key things we heard loud and clear:

• You love our Lusi Wong Library (41% very satisfied, 44% satisfied), Moose Tracks Connection Desk (33% very satisfied, 46% satisfied), and the Ministry Centre (32% very satisfied, 38% satisfied) and their respective services.
• Our events rock! 87% of respondents are satisfied or very satisfied with our events, with only 6% of respondents indicating they hadn’t attended any events. Our Carnival College Dinner, Wind Out, and Succulents and Ice Cream Social were some of your top fave events!
• Renison is a safe space to be where it’s easy to make friends. 97% of residents felt Renison is safe, 92% of you made friends with at least two other students in residence, and 80% of respondents feel they belong at Renison.
• In terms of support at Renison, you loved our Dons! 82% of respondents felt their Don was always or most of the time available for anything they needed. The Student Experience & Housing team was always or most of the time available for students according to 79% of respondents.
• Some areas that could use some work in Residence is our food in the Renison cafeteria (8% very satisfied, 25% satisfied, with an additional 30% neither satisfied/dissatisfied), our wifi connectivity (23% very satisfied, 44% satisfied), washroom conditions (13% very satisfied, 21% satisfied, 26% neither satisfied/dissatisfied, but 36% dissatisfied/very dissatisfied)
• We are particularly excited to report that 64% of respondents were satisfied with their overall residence experience, and a further 20% were very satisfied. We are so glad!

You warmed our hearts!

Some of our favourite words of encouragement that warmed our hearts included:

• “My honest feedback is that you guys rock! I never experienced a residence community like this, compared to my undergrad at U of T, this place made me feel completely safe and at home. You would be doing the parents at home really proud. I felt taken care of here, you guys made it such an enjoyable place to live with different activities almost every night, special events to look forward to, and really friendly staff and caring mentors/peer leaders. Everyone here is a star and it shows in all the memories you’ve made with us that we’ve captured on camera.”
• “Over the past year, Renison has been a home away from home. It is an amazing living learning community filled with lots of friendly faces. All the staff are so approachable, from the profs to the cleaning staff. Very spacious dorm rooms. Renison is probably one of the best resident experiences you can get with all the activities and support systems within. I’m so happy I got to spend my first year here and am looking forward to spending more!”
• “Since moving into Renison this place has been my home. There are a multitude of reasons on why I wish to stay at Renison term after term. It lives up to having a healthy and strong residence community and is a great place to live while completing my studies.”

How we're taking action

Thank you all for the positive words of support! Based on your valuable input, and feedback from past residents, our entire Renison community will be working towards some exciting new projects in the future:

• Improvements to our lounge spaces: stay tuned for some work to come in time for Fall 2024 to our Moose Room and our Link Student Lounge, including some new furniture and colourful additions!
• Access to an interactive meal station five nights a week: This Fall, enjoy an additional meal option cooked on the spot to enjoy in our Renison Cafeteria! The meal station will vary from pasta bar nights with assorted ingredients and sauces available, make-your-own sushi bowl night, a Pho station with vegetarian options available, and a poutine station with different toppings and sauces to make it how you want it!
• $100 Flex Dollars added to your WatCard each term: Beginning in Fall 2024, if you want to switch things up for lunch, you can enjoy a meal at any location that accepts WatCard, including on-campus vendors and off-campus vendors. This extra balance can also be used for laundry services in the Renison laundry room, too!
• Introduction of an Inclusion Peer Leader role: Beginning in Fall term, an Inclusion Peer Leader will be working to introduce more event programming for equity-deserving student communities at Renison, including activities for Black and Racialized students, 2SLGBTQIA+ students, neurodivergent students, mature students, and international students/English language learners. We’ll be bringing this programming into our revamped Link Lounge!
• Long-range Residence Washroom Refresh: Our Vice-President, Student Affairs & Community Education has been working alongside our college’s Facilities and Finance departments in a long-range plan to perform significant refreshes to our shared washroom facilities on our residence floors. This will allow for greater privacy, additional comfort, and a fresh look.
• More residence floor events: You love the fantastic community events hosted by our Peer Leaders and Dons, but we hear how important it is for you to be able to bond with your specific residence floor. We’ll be working on more community-building initiatives with our next Don team for this Fall – stay tuned!